Gunmen suspected to be bandits have killed Mike Ode, a commander of the agro-ranger of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), in Shaapera community, Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue state.
According to Nicholas Ode, the deceased’s uncle, Mike Ode was brutally killed during a confrontation with herdsmen in Shaapera village on Monday.
The corpse has been deposited at the morgue of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.
“We were told that he went for a special assignment at Shaapera village. It was there that they had a confrontation with the herdsmen and during the gun duel, they confirmed that the NSCDC were able to kill up to 10 of them.
“Unfortunately, we were told that one of the four civil defence guys, which is my brother, was gunned down while others escaped,” Nicholas Ode stated.
The NSCDC Command Public Relations Officer, Superintendent of Corps Mike Ejelikwu, confirmed the incident, stating that the death of the personnel would not deter the command from performing its constitutional mandate of providing security for every law-abiding citizen in the state.
Ejelikwu explained that the deceased was killed during a gun duel with the bandits, but there was heavy casualty on the part of the bandits.
“We lost one agro ranger who incidentally was the commander of the operation,” he said, adding that the command was already in touch with his family.